35/52: A Baby Bird, Garden Goodies, and School Days

Our barn cats are finally living their best lives, free to roam the property, but they've discovered the birds' nests in the forsythia bushes... Looks like there won't be any more birds nesting there now that it's no longer safe! One of the cats climbed up in the bush, knocked out a nest and chicks, and then the two of them seem to either have feasted on the chicks or maybe there was only one? The kids guarded it until Andrew got it, and we tried to keep it alive but ended up passing it along to a local birding expert who didn't have any luck with it, unfortunately. Looks like it was a chipping sparrow? We have a ton of those around here, but it's always kind of sad to watch the circle of life in action when it involves a cute baby bird.

The cherry tomatoes hadn't been producing much all summer, and then all of a sudden we had a huge glut! I gave tons to the CSA, we ate tons, I gave away even more to friends... And now they seem to have slowed down again, but there are lots of flowers on the plants. Maybe we'll have one more big crop before frost?

The green beans also had a huge few weeks, and now have succumbed to bean beetles and disease... Note to self, do one more late planting next year so we can enjoy them through all of September! Now we have tons of winter squash to deal with, which should be fun considering we don't actually enjoy eating it. I think I can sell most of the family on spaghetti squash if I cook it right, but I'm not sure about the others. Any tried-and-true recipes for a family that really hates the flavor? If nothing else, I'll let the kids bake a bunch and experiment using them in muffins and breads and the like.

School is in full swing, and I love all the pictures of people's kids in their adorable uniforms (even for homeschooling!) but I'll admit, we are very often pajama schoolers. If I have to wait for everyone to be dressed, we wouldn't be able to start until lunchtime on some days! If I'm lucky, I can catch them right after they eat breakfast and get the girls to do their independent work quickly and then read aloud whenever Lucy lets us. She is quite the tyrant, though, so it's difficult.

We had our first glorious taste of fall weather, so of course I had to make soup and fresh bread. Andrew strongly dislikes soup, so it was a day when he was gone for dinner and the kids were delighted! As much as I love my blue soup pot though, it's just not big enough to make enough soup for leftovers, and I'm pretty sad about that... But I still use it as much as I possibly can, it's just so lovely!